The Raw Life

I am feeling a little bit better today.

My disgruntled attitude about raw food was most likely coming from a terrible experience with raw gazpacho that I had two nights ago.  While my whole family ate grilled, marinated chicken, rice and steamed asparagus, I tried to choke down a lumpy bowl of nasty, pureed mush.  I couldn't do it.  I ended up eating a little bit of raw cabbage and calling it a night.  The following day I was plagued by headache and felt exhausted.

But yesterday, after dragging my tail through my morning workout and through my afternoon, my friend Amber swooped in to save the day.  She's also doing the raw cleanse.  The difference between she and I is that she has the gift of turning everything that she touches into deliciousness.

I made homemade pizzas, salad and pasta for the kids and Amber and I had a raw dinner.

For our appetizer I made a vegetable plate with a zucchini hummus.  Then, I made a really yummy primavera sauce that I served over kelp noodles.  Amber used a serrated peeler to create zucchini spaghetti and made an incredible pesto sauce to go with it.  It was SO GOOD.  I felt, for the first time in a couple of days, like I was eating a real, substantial meal.  And it was delicious.  To go with the salad I made a dressing from tahini and miso.  It turned out pretty great!

But dessert was what pleased me the most.  For dessert I created raw almond butter cups!  They were pretty decadent.  I could totally be a fat raw foodist, eating nuts and candy bars all day long.  One of these packs a whopping 300 calories.

Check it out!

First, I took a bowl of organic raw coconut oil and let it warm a little bit in the sunshine.  Coconut oil doesn't have to be very warm to melt, so there's no danger of cooking it.

Then I mixed in about 1/4 cup of raw agave nectar and cacao powder until it seemed to be a rich color and good consistency!  

Next, I lined a cupcake pan with cupcake wrappers and layered the chocolate mixture on the bottom.  After it set in the freezer for about 30 seconds, I spooned about a tbsp of raw almond butter on top of the chocolate!

Then, I covered the almond butter with more chocolate and sprinkled raw, shredded coconut on top!

The result was heaven for two ladies who are five days on raw foods with very few decadent treats.  The words "oh my god" were spoken in whispers a few times.  

I am feeling great!  And I'm going to make it through this. I'm feeling so good that I got on the treadmill for 60 minutes today!